1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast and/or communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a packet transmission/reception apparatus and method in the broadcast and/or communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With an increase of multimedia contents for user consumption, especially high capacity multimedia data, such as High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (UHD) contents, network data congestion has also been increasing more and more in broadcast and communication environments. In this situation, content data transmitted by a transmitter, such as a Host A, may not be delivered to a receiver, such as a Host B, normally, thus resulting in data loss along a routing path. In many cases, the content data are transmitted in units of packets and thus the data loss may occur in a unit of a packet too. The data loss on the network may cause data packet reception failure of the receiver, and thus, it may be difficult for the receiver to recover the data carried in the missing packet. As a consequence, the missing packets may cause audio and video quality degradation with various deleterious effects, such as a cracked screen, a missing subtitle, and a file loss, thus, resulting in user's inconvenience. Accordingly, there is a need of the technique for recovering the missing data.
One of the well-known missing data recovery techniques is to group data packets, so-called source packets, with various lengths into a source block and add parity bits or repair packets to the source block thorough Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoding. In the case that there is missing data, the receiver may be capable of decoding the original data using the repair information. At this time, the source block may include packets of contents that use different transmission reliabilities. If the amount of the repair packets is determined according to the packet using a highest reliability in the source block, then, in the source block, the packets using relatively low reliabilities may be overprotected so as to degrade the efficiency of the network. Otherwise, if the amount of the repair packets is determined according to the packet using the lowest reliability in the source block, the packets using relatively high reliabilities may not be recovered. Therefore, a need exists for an error correction method that is capable of improving error correction efficiency by dividing the source block. Also, there is a need of a method for protecting the packets using relatively high reliabilities using the parities generated with one or more error correction codes.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.